Em and Horry's First Christmas

madscientist

Rating: PG
Genres: Romance, Humor
Relationships: Harry & Hermione
Book: Harry & Hermione, Books 1 - 5
Published: 23/12/2005
Last Updated: 23/12/2005
Status: completed

Set in the Darkness/Lions/War of Shadows universe. Harry, Hermione and thier twins' first Christmas. Toy firebolts, mistletoe, Padfoot, a touch of everything really.

Chapters

1. Em and Horry's First Christmas

1. Em and Horry's First Christmas

Ok, folks, part 2 of the Christmas Blitz. This is set in 'my' Lions Universe, it could be a missing chapter from HP and the War of Shadows, so there, but it's much less angsty than many parts of that book. For those of you who haven't read anything in that universe, the Time line here is a bit off that of the "accepted" time line, H/Hr are 20/21, Sirius is alive and Arthur is MoM. Have Fun and Merry Christmas. Thanks as usual to Lady Starlight for her work on this one as well.

Em and Horry's First Christmas...

*******************Godric's Hollow************************

December 25, 2008
6:00 am

Harry stood leaning against the doorway, a cup of coffee cradled in his hands. He took a sip, and smiled as he watched the enchanted fairy lights of an eight-foot-tall tree dance across the otherwise unlit room. Harry cocked his head, considering the scene, as Crookshanks rubbed against his legs on the way through to the kitchen and his Christmas morning saucer of milk. He set the mug down on a nearby table, concentrated a moment, and watched with childlike glee as a perfect, miniature replica of the Hogwarts Express appeared, complete with a track appeared and started to circle endlessly around the rather tall pile of presents that had appeared magically, in the night.

He smiled as a pair of familiar arms slipped around him from behind. Hermione propped her chin on his shoulder and leaned her head against his. She arched an eyebrow, "Honestly, Harry...they are eight months old."

"So?"

Hermione rolled her eyes, and smiled. She bent her face to the side, and kissed his cheek, "Never mind." She grabbed his hand and pulled him to the couch, pushing him down onto it, before she stretched out on it, laying her head in his lap and looking up. "They are still asleep," she grinned slightly and rolled onto her back facing up to look at him.

"Now what could we get up to in the meantime?" Harry mused, grinning slightly.

"I believe that thoughts like that are much of the reason that I didn't get much sleep last night," Hermione replied with a yawn.

"Sorry about that, Mione," Harry whispered, looking away from her and watching the endless journeys of the train for a moment, she leaned her head into his hand as it came down to cup the back of her head and run through her hair, absently. "Molly had seven wizards and witches...she could have said something..."

Hermione laughed softly, "I don't think that Molly had to worry about any of her sprogs getting woken up because some drunk wizard was flying overhead with an out of tune broom."

"He was giving me a headache too, still got it," Harry whined. "Dumb wizard thinking he was Santa..." Hermione smiled up at him tolerantly, flicked her fingers and watched as a small vial appeared with a pop.

"Me too," Hermione confirmed as Harry drunk the potion and closed his eyes, "You aren't supposed to be able feel field strength imbalances on brooms." Hermione glanced upward towards the ceiling of the room, towards the nursery upstairs and the sky beyond, "Dumbarse is lucky the house defenses didn't pot him and splatter him all over the Pitch out back."

"Yeah..." Harry looked at the pile of the presents, "can we get them up now?" he asked and Hermione rolled her eyes. He looked around at the pile, and muttered a spell, causing the presents to resort themselves. A single, small box lifted from the pile and floated over, dropping lightly next to Hermione's head.

"Mine?" Hermione whispered, and Harry nodded, smiling as she sat up, scooting along the couch until she was next to him. Hermione opened the small box to find an old friend...She looked up at Harry quizzically as she examined the locket that Harry had given her years ago. She looked closer in the light and sighed softly as she turned it over from the side with the two intertwined H's and a sapphire and ruby coexisting, to find two more letters, an E and an H, each set with an emerald. "When did you have this done?" she breathed softly, looking at the locket in the light of the tree. She opened it with a thought to find a picture of Harry holding both of the twins, all three of them asleep in the wooden rocker that sat in the corner.

"If you open it from the other side, it still has our picture in it," Harry confirmed as Hermione leaned forward to let him hang it around her neck, "I snuck it out of your jewelry box last week to have Mallory's change it."

"Thanks, Harry," Hermione whispered and slid up onto his lap before kissing him softly and letting her head fall to his shoulder. She turned slightly to the fireplace in the corner, and started as the flames erupted green and a familiar face appeared in the flames. "Ron, you gave me a fright..."

Ron's head bobbed as he chuckled in the midst of the flames, and looked around the room, before looking back at Harry and Hermione, "We've been up for hours," he laughed, "Elliot's already been tearing open everyone's presents," he glanced back into the room, "Mum's going spare, what with all the kids here at once, and the grandkids...except you four, you guys still coming over for lunch?"

As he asked, a second head pushed his head aside, "Happy Christmas," Luna said happily as she looked around the room and her eyes settled on a sprig of leaves and white berries hanging in the doorway to the kitchen.

Hermione's eyes followed her and she smiled, "We denarglefied it, Luna," she reassured her with a small grin. Luna beamed before kissing Ron on the cheek. "We should be along in a few hours," Hermione glanced over at the pile of unopened presents, "or a few days, depends on if Santa," she pointed up at Harry, "here makes them open everything first."

"Oi, I'm right here," Harry muttered in a falsely affronted voice. The other three laughed at him, as he pouted slightly and contented himself with making the train start to travel along the track faster and slower.

"We know..." three disparate voices responded as one. Hermione reached over and patted his cheek consolingly as the other two continued to laugh softly. "It's alright, Harry, I'm sorry-" she glanced up as a soft beeping sounded from a stuffed Hippogriff that was propped on top of the couch. She watched the eyes flashing for a second before she stood and stretched, and grinned as her t-shirt rode up and Harry seemed fascinated by the lights sparkling in the emerald on her belly button ring. She smirked slightly, "They're awake, Daddy, are you going to go get them?"

Harry blinked, "Oh, yeah-" Harry vanished between breaths, Apparating up a floor and a room over.

Ron and Luna laughed louder, and Hermione turned and glared at Ron, Luna escaped, because...she was Luna, and from long experience with her younger friend, it would have been just a waste of effort, "Get out of here, honestly, I think that Harry has gained the right..." Ron grabbed Luna's shoulder and they vanished from the fire without another word. Hermione giggled, and sat back down on the couch, leaning up against one arm and tossing her legs out along the seat of the couch.

Hermione looked up as Harry reappeared with a babe in each arm. He set both of them on the ground before he slipped to the floor at the base of the couch. Horatio took off like an errant Bludger towards the large pile of brightly colored presents and immediately dove into the pile. Harry laughed as Em looked up at him and held her arms up to be picked up. Harry picked her up as Hermione slid down next to him and leaned back against the couch. "Horry," Hermione said, and watched as a head of black hair peaked up from the pile, "where's Mummy?" He giggled and crawled towards her quickly, sitting back on his rear and hold his arms up to be picked up like his sister.

Harry motioned and Emilia giggled, looking up at him with shining green eyes as a present floated over to drop in front of them. "Want to open the present, Emilia?" Harry asked and laughed as Emilia reached out for the red and gold wrapped present. Harry placed the two-foot long box across his and Hermione's laps. The twins glanced at each other, an odd look in their eyes as clumsy hands tore away the paper. Harry reached forward, and lifted the lip of the box, as Hermione muttered under her breath, already pretty much figuring out what Harry had in the box.

"Harry James...just when do you think they will be able to use those?" Hermione growled in his ear, in a mix of amused tolerance and exasperation. Harry shrugged and pulled a quarter-scale Firebolt from the box where it rested next to another just like it.

"They have sticking charms and only go about ten miles an hour, Hermione," Harry replied proudly, as he reached out and another box floated over to them. He handed it to Hermione, and watched as she helped Horatio unwrap the present. Hermione laughed as Horry finished with the present and began to wave the paper over his head like a triumphant battle flag. She reached in and pulled out a pair of tiny scarlet and gold jerseys. She held one up to show "POTTER" emblazoned across the back, before flipping it over to find a rampant lion spread across the front.

Harry just shrugged, as he conspicuously set the toy broom down, just out of her sight. "They're cute, Harry," she reassured him, and canted her head, considering, "In fact, here," Hermione pulled the paper from Horatio's hand, and with only a modicum of complaint from the youngest Potter, she managed to exchange the green jumper that Harry had put on him, with one of the jerseys. She handed Harry the other, and motioned towards Emilia. "We have to be able to find them in that mass of kids later, don't we?"

"Ron'll complain that they aren't Cannons' jerseys," Harry remarked distractedly as he tried to change a struggling daughter who was much more interested in the crunch of paper as Crookshanks bounded through the pile, than what she was wearing, if anything.

Hermione crooked an eyebrow as she summoned a present that she had bought the kids, and started to help them to open it, as Emilia had crawled over from her father to see what the new shiny was, "No child of mine is going to wear one of those ghastly orange things..."

"You've worn worse, Love," Harry grinned as she opened the package to reveal, Greg the Griffin and His Magical Adventures, she opened the book and held it open on her lap, for the kids to watch the animated images flutter from page to page.

"The Ministry pays me to wear that crud," Hermione's eyes glittered, "and I think it was you who had to wear that stuffed Manticore suit the other day."

"Remind me to kill Ron for that," Harry replied out of the side of his mouth as he watched Emilia crawl over to the pile of presents and start to paw at them, looking back at him occasionally. "Honestly, who needs to stake out Death Eaters in a kids' restaurant?"

"No one," Hermione reassured him, leaning over to give him a quick kiss while both kids were busy with an empty box, "Ron just liked the pizza there." She looked over and sighed as Emilia found her broom again and tried to pick it up; which as it was as big as her, was rather difficult. "I'll change him to a newt for you for Christmas..."

"That's alright," Harry replied distractedly as he reached forward to pull Horatio onto his lap, he picked up a Golden Snitch and started to play with it, in front of him, Hermione whispered dire imprecations against him, "What? It's to help his coordination." They both watched as Emilia looked over and giggled, watching the shining gold, winged ball. It flitted over to her, under control of Harry, and she reached up, just grazing it with her small fingers. "Or maybe hers," Harry corrected himself, as Emilia almost caught the admittedly slow moving Snitch.

After another hour of slowly opening presents, Harry looked over at Hermione and grinned, as she leaned back against the couch and closed her eyes. The twins' location was marked by the sound of rustling paper as they crawled under piles and piles of the stuff, while Crookshanks was bounding from the top of the couch to the neighboring chair and back, trying to catch the training Snitch that was hovering just out of reach. She turned her head to him without opening her eyes and grinned against his lips as he leaned in to kiss her. "Are you ready to go over to that madhouse, Mione?" Harry muttered as he reached over and pulled her against his side. Hermione let her head droop to his shoulder, shaking it slightly.

"Honestly, I'm happy right here, Harry," she whispered without raising her head from his shoulder. "But..." she sighed, and opened her eyes a hair, looking up at the clock, "I suppose we should be about it." She looked over towards the moving pile of paper, before rolling to her feet in one motion and picking up her wand from the couch behind her. She pointed it up the stairs and caught, a moment later, a brightly decorated bag. "I'll be right back," she leaned down and kissed the top of his head, "and you might want to change them before we go." Hermione quickly escaped up the stairs before Harry could say a word.

She came back down a few minutes later, in old, torn comfortable jeans and a soft, dark-green jumper. She took both of the kids from Harry, letting him slip upstairs to change. He was back in two minutes, dressed almost identically to his wife, which as the jumper she had on was his, originally, wasn't terribly difficult. He took the large necessities bag from her and shook it slightly, "Alright do we have everything this time...wands, cells, mirrors, diapers, bottles, extra clothes, toys..."

"I'm sure they are getting more, Harry, but yeah."

"Got your badge, just in case?" Harry asked, and Hermione felt her front pocket and nodded. "Got the kids?" He said wryly, as Hermione knelt down and picked both of them up without even a grunt. Harry wrapped his arms around her from behind and looked up at Hedwig, who had just flown in the owl door in the kitchen and was not perched near the top of the tree, "We are going to the Burrow, girl." She hooted and her four humans vanished without a sound, Crookshanks merowed for a minute before he curled up on top of Harry's favorite black robe.

*************************The Burrow******************************

9:35 am

As Ron had implied earlier in the morning, the Burrow was a madhouse. The ramshackle house was filled to the rafters, literally, with almost the biggest crowd it had held since, possibly, ever. Arthur was sitting in his rocking chair, watching as Molly bustled about handing out snacks, stepping over errant grandchildren, and children in the case of George where he was lying in the floor playing with Elliot with sort of car. Fred was sitting above him on the couch with his arm around Angelina, her head resting against her new husband's shoulder. She was amazingly still asleep as Alicia bustled in, and dropped next to her. Alicia looked frazzled as she looked back towards the kitchen door as Molly slipped behind it. Ron laughed slightly as he came downstairs with Luna; she was giggling softly as Alicia looked up at them and glared. "You two can have Harriet back," she growled as Harriet toddled past, giggling madly and trailing a large stuffed bear by one leg. Alicia slid down off the couch to sit next to George, and looked up.

Luna looked at her curiously as she picked up her daughter and spun out of the way as Elliot sprinted past on the way towards the kitchen, "COOKIE."

Harriet looked up at her mother and giggled, as she started to play with Luna's hair. Luna smiled down at her and as Harriet began to reach out in the sign that Luna knew meant, "cookie." Luna kissed Ron on the cheek as she passed in the direction that Molly had taken, leading to the kitchen.

"What's wrong, Alicia?" Hermione replied as her, Harry, Horatio and Emilia appeared silently in the midst of the living room. She set down her twins and watched as they took several steps before dropping to their knees and crawling away. "Aren't you ready to a have a few of your own?" she sniggered as Alicia made a face and looked oddly at George.

"When did they start walking, mate?" Ron asked as he came up gave Harry a quick hug.

"Wednesday," Hermione replied, she shrugged as she placed their necessities bag in a pile with several other ones behind the couch.

"Oh, Hermione, dear, you made it," Molly said happily as she swept out of the kitchen, carrying Harriet. She set the little girl down and watched as she toddled off towards Horry and Em, she fell down on her bum and sat with the other two, as the new trio seemed to communicate without a word other than a few well-paced coos.

"Didn't think we would, Mum," Hermione replied as Molly gave her a hug, before sweeping Harry up into a bone-shattering one of his own, "I honestly thought that we'd be there until tomorrow with the pile of presents Harry got them."

"I seem to remember a few of those packages having, 'from Mum' on them," Harry replied, knowing he had already lost anyway. Hermione gave him a small pout, before tossing her arms around his neck and giving him a kiss. She frowned slightly as she started to pull away, and felt a strong resistance. They looked up, "GEORGE, FRED," Hermione and Harry snapped as one.

"You know how to get out of it," Fred replied, without moving from under Angelina, she cracked her eyes open, glanced up at the sprig of enchanted mistletoe hanging above their heads.

Hermione looked down, at the former Gryffindor Chaser, "You don't mind if I turn your husband into a mouse and feed him to your familiar, do you Angelina?"

"Naw," Angelina replied without moving, and yawned, "I had idiotic stupidity added to his life insurance with Gringotts when we got married...I get like a third of the shares in WWW when he kicks, plus a whole ton of Galleons." Alicia looked up from the floor and nodded, mouthing, "me too." Hermione giggled before looking to Harry and shrugging. She reached up, tangling her fingers in Harry's disheveled locks. Harry leaned in, pushing his lips to hers, and grinned against them for an instant, before he heard her sigh as his tongue slipped home to meet hers. Time stopped for an instant as they kissed, with Harry's hands coming up to cup the back of her neck and pull her in closer. They broke apart a minute later, breathing heavily, to scattered applause from the various and sundry Weasleys.

10:30

In deference to Ron's insatiable appetite, along with the now, eight grandchildren, or those Molly and Arthur considered as such that had arrived by now, Bill and Fleur had arrived with Andrew and Teresa, their three and two year old respectively, and just ten minutes before, Remus and Tonks had appeared with Xander and Abigail, lunch was served more as a brunch than anything on Christmas morning. Abigail was sleeping in Tonks' arms as they sat at the magically expanded table, filled to beyond capacity with Molly, Arthur, Ron, Luna, Bill, Fleur, Fred, Angelina, George, Alicia, Harry, Hermione, Remus, Tonks; Charlie fresh back from Romania, and with a sheepish, last minute arrival, Sirius, along with the eight various kids. Molly waved a wand and floated over a large turkey to Arthur who leaned forward and started to direct a large knife to carve the fowl with his wand.

"So, Hermione," Molly asked as she passed the brunette a bowl of cranberry sauce, she leaned in closer, glancing towards Harry where he was busy being engaged in conversation with Sirius, Lupin and Ron over something to do with the Quidditch season, "did Harry go overboard this morning? Merlin knows that Ron did."

Hermione bit her lip, thinking back to the tree this morning, "No, mum, I think it was just about right." Hermione spooned a pile of sauce onto her plate, handed the bowl down to Harry and kissed him on the cheek before leaning back to check on the twins and Harriet where they were lying asleep on the couch in the living room. Hermione reached out with her senses, confirming they were still asleep before looking back across the table at Luna to give her a small nod.

She leaned over and rested her shoulder on Harry's as she looked around the table as she took a bite of her turkey. She smiled and motioned with her eyes towards Fred and George. Both of the boys looked oddly, nervous as they sat next to each other, their wives on either side of them. Harry, Hermione thought quietly and felt his silent acknowledgement as he ostensibly continued his conversation with the boys, the Twins.

Harry glanced over to them, without seeming to, Nervous, much...they already got married...he glanced to Luna and watched as she seemed to focus off into space for the briefest of instants, which as that wasn't terribly abnormal, no one else noticed. Oh, Harry and Hermione realized with identical, hidden grins.

They watched as the twins looked over at each other, and motioned for each to say something. Finally both Fred and George stood and motioned for silence. An odd, expectant quiet filled the kitchen as every one of the adults looked to them. Elliot ran around the table and pulled on Ginny's jeans, she smiled slightly and picked him up, hushing him with a cookie she retrieved from a large plate of them stuck next to the cranberry sauce. Molly planned well.

"I have an announcement," Fred said.

"No, I do," George interrupted.

The two brothers glared at each other slightly, trying to interrupt as their wives caught each other's eyes and looked down, shaking their heads as one. Bill sighed, glanced over at Fleur to see her hiding her giggles behind her hands. "Oh, for Merlin's sake...Fred you go first," Bill sighed and shook his head, taking a sip of the pumpkin juice at his elbow.

Fred took a breath and reached down and pulled Angelina to her feet. He held her hand as they looked around, "Angelina and I...we're having a baby."

Screams of joy and surprise answered him, as Molly jumped to her feet and the kids beyond stirred. Hermione's hand flashed, throwing a wall of silence up between the kids sleeping in the living room beyond. Molly jumped up from her chair, upsetting a platter and almost knocking the table askew as she came around to hug them, when George interrupted petulantly, "We are too...."

The sounds of joy redoubled as the Weasleys jumped up to congratulate the Twins and their wives, who looked rather disconcerted at the sudden attention. Hermione squeezed Harry's leg under the table and nodded towards the door to the back yard. Harry gave her a nod, and stood, taking her hand. They briefly stopped to congratulate the twins, before they escaped the hubbub to stand together outside in Molly's garden.

Harry looked back at the Kitchen through the window and watched as Molly took each of the girls in hand. He sighed slightly and led Hermione along the path. Harry barely noticed as Hermione cast a Warming Charm over them both. "The sprogs still asleep, Mione?" Harry muttered as they came to stand under a beech tree near the edge of the garden. In the woods nearby, not much moved as the soft crunch of snow under their boots disturbed the quiet Christmas morning.

Hermione's eyes went slightly unfocused, "Yeah, Harry, they are still out of it. Daddy must have tired them out," she teased softly, before looking down at her shoes for a second. She looked back towards the ramshackle house, before she squeezed Harry's fingers intertwined with hers. "Me too, Harry," she replied to his unspoken comment.

"It's not that I'm not happy for them," Harry mused, "I know how happy they were for us, but it's not the same." Hermione nodded and leaned back into him, as he wrapped his arms around her from behind. A light snow began to fall, causing flicking images of their almost disastrous fifth year to cross his mind's eye as Hermione turned slightly, enough for him to see the flakes hanging off her eyelashes, and decorating her chestnut tresses.

"You know," a deep, humor-filled voice announced out of the garden behind them, "your father used to do this moping thing too. But I will admit that you are a master, my boy," Sirius chuckled slightly as he came out from behind a tall oak to stand next to them. Hermione rolled her eyes as they turned to find Sirius holding a pair of spare winter cloaks, "I'm still your Godfather, Harry, I really don't want to answer to Lily for not taking care of you," he explained with a slight smile.

"I miss them, Padfoot," Harry muttered, and looked over at Hermione, "we both, I..." Sirius cut him off with a wave and a knowing nod.

"I do as well, Harry," Sirius admitted before he came to stand next to them, "times like this, I just try to remember to enjoy it. We know, all of us, how transitory the good times can be...that's why we should enjoy them when they come along." The three of them stood quietly for a long moment, remembering, before Hermione took a deep breath and turned to Sirius with a small smile on her face.

"Snuffles?"

"Yes, O' Bookworm..." Sirius replied airily and Harry rolled his eyes, as Hermione snorted and leaned back against him.

"Speaking of old habits, what was that article in the Prophet the other day...oh, yes," Hermione's eyes took on a curious glint, "The Resurrected Baron Black was seen dabbling with three lovely young witches at Alexander's, where the quartet seemed rather chummy..." Hermione frowned and crooked an eyebrow, "Honestly, Sirius...I went to school with two of those girls. They were what, eighteen?"

"Yeah," Sirius replied happily, as Hermione glared at him, he mock glared back, and "I seem to remember the whole expose that Angie Forthright wrote on the antics of 'Lord and Lady Potter', last month, young lady." He smirked and crossed his arms and tried, and failed to look disapproving, "Catching you two snogging in the back of Flourish and Blotts, indeed," he paused, and broke out in laughter, "Harry, your parents would be so proud," another pause, "or rather James would be. And Lily too, though she would never admit it, she had this thing about bookstores and libraries, too..."

Harry laughed softly, as Hermione's cheeks burned slightly as she spun and buried her face in Harry's jumper. A tiny giggle managed to escape her lips, "Honestly, I'm not sure if I should be proud or mortified," she laughed as without daring to look up at the elder Marauder.

"Proud, lass, proud," Sirius proclaimed as another burst of sound came from the direction of the Burrow. All three of them spun as various enhanced senses recognized the two newcomers. Ron's heavy tread and Luna's whisper quiet one joined them, standing outside in the relative peace.

"We escaped," Ron said happily as he approached, and stopped. He had a pile of Christmas cookies in a napkin, and was quickly eating them; stopping to drink a bit of hot chocolate from a magically sealed mug every few bites. Luna smiled happily up at him and leaned back against him, and snuggled into his cloak. "Mum will be like that for a bit. She went on for days when we told her-finally had to Apparate away to escape." Luna shrugged, agreeing as she stole a cookie from Ron, and took a sip of his chocolate. "What were you three up to?"

Hermione reached out to try to grab Sirius, but he danced out of her reach, "Oh..." he said airily jumping back as Hermione reached for a wand, "we were talking about Hermione's...bibliophilic tendencies." Hermione growled something under her breath in a dead language. Sirius jumped as a single yellow canary landed in his hair and started to peck at him. The rest of them laughed as Sirius patted at his hair, and started to chuckle himself. "And here I thought you were mad at me."

"If I was really mad, Padfoot," Hermione announced sweetly, "I would have had him peck a bit...lower."

Sirius finally managed to shoo the bird and stepped forward to throw his arms around the brunette, "Did I ever tell you, that I consider you just like a daughter," he said seriously.

"Thank you, Padfoot," Hermione replied in a slightly choked voice as she returned the hug and rose on her toes to kiss his cheek. Sirius smiled slightly as he let her go, back to Harry who smiled at him, and nodded.

Hermione perked up as she felt Emilia stirring, and sighed. She leaned back, bending her neck enough to be able to share a quick kiss with her husband before she vanished from his arms silently. Harry looked towards the house, and started to follow at a more sedate pace. Ron smiled and laughed under his breath, shaking his head as he and Luna stayed behind and started to engage Sirius in a conversation about his last mission for Arthur.

With a great deal of natural talent and not a small bit of trained skill, Harry slipped unnoticed past the large knot of Weasleys and attached hangers-on in the kitchen, though from the way Molly and Fleur were carrying on to the Twins, Angelina and Alicia, he could have led a marching band through the kitchen and no one would have noticed. He smiled slightly as she saw the trapped, exasperated look on Bill's face as the eldest Weasley child sat in his seat and nodded where appropriate.

Harry gave him a nod, and slipped into the Living Room, easing closed the door between the two in passing. He stopped as he came into the room, to find Hermione sitting with her back to one arm of the slightly bedraggled couch, with her legs spread out before her. At her feet on the long, magically expanded couch, Horatio was still curled up asleep. He was clutching a large, plush dragon to his chest; its shiny black scales almost an exact match to his hair. He glanced back to Hermione, as she sat with Emilia in her lap, resting back against her chest. Hermione's hair had fallen forward to cover her face, and humorously, Emilia's had as well. The Potters had been not too terribly amazed to find that their young daughters' hair seemed to have the same resistance to being cut, and fast growth of her father.

She fussed slightly as she tried to get her juice cup to her mouth; Hermione reached down without a thought and helped her, before glancing up at Harry through her fall of hair. She smiled as Harry slid to the ground next to her and laid his head back until it rested on her thigh next to Emilia. "Happy Christmas, Mione," he whispered as her free hand, the one that wasn't half holding up Emilia began to comb absently through his hair.

"Happy Christmas, Harry."

Merry Christmas, Everyone

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